So here's an interesting thought experiment: you have been given access to the government's top-secret time machine for the purpose of putting together the Best Science-Fiction Filmmaking Team of All Time. Whom do you choose? And why? Yes, these are the things I think about and not just because I write a column about science-fiction film. Although that does mean I get to tell you about them. Here are my choices.

DIRECTOR
This one's the easy one: if you've going to pick just one science-fiction director, you go with Steven Spielberg. He can do action (Jurassic Park, Minority Report), he can do heart (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial), and occasionally he can do weird (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Artificial Intelligence: AI). He's had a science-fiction turkey or two (The Lost World: Jurassic Park), but his hit-miss ratio in science fiction is unmatched. Not picking him for your team would be like not picking Michael Jordan in his prime for you basketball team.
ALTERNATES: Ridley Scott, James Cameron

PRODUCER
George Lucas would seem like an obvious choice here, since the Star Wars films and the Indiana Jones films are all unqualified moneymakers, but outside those two franchises he's a little shaky (Howard the Duck, Willow), and inside those two franchises his influence on scripts and stories don't do the films any favors. So instead let me suggest a dark-horse candidate: Gale Anne Hurd, who produced some of the most significant science-fiction films of the eighties and nineties (notably Aliens and the first two Terminator films, directed by her former husband James Cameron) and whose other films in the genre are either enjoyable (Tremors) or profitable (Armageddon). She knows her way around science fiction.
ALTERNATES: Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy, George Pal

WRITERS
Lawrence Kasdan and Leigh Brackett worked on only one science-fiction movie together, but that movie just happened to be The Empire Strikes Back, the best written of the Star Wars films. Kasdan brought in emotional resonance, while Brackett, the co-screenwriter of Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo and Big Sleep, brought in snap and a tough-edged sensibility. Between them they could handle whatever story you needed.
ALTERNATES: David Koepp, David Webb Peoples

MUSIC
Dude: John Williams. When you consider that more than half of the movie music that people can hum from memory comes from him, this isn't even close. Five Oscar wins and over 40 nominations also make for a strong case.
ALTERNATES: Jerry Goldsmith, Danny Elfman

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Science-fiction film has been perennially strong in this category, with nominations coming in from the thirties on and several wins, including Vilmos Zsigmond in 1977 for Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Mauro Fiore for Avatar just last year. My A-team selection for this category, however, is Allen Daviau, who gave E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial its distinctive look (and was nominated for an Oscar for it) and who looked through the camera for several other Spielberg and/or science-fiction films. He's an essential part of the equation when people think of the Spielberg look.
ALTERNATES: Geoffrey Unsworth, Jordan Cronenweth

SPECIAL EFFECTS
In this field it would be easy to pick someone from the Star Wars or CGI eras of effects, but this is one field where I personally would go old school and pick stop-motion-effects master Ray Harryhausen, who made special effects amazing largely during a time when the advanced processes we take for granted today weren't available. From 1953's Beast From 20000 Fathoms to 1981's Clash of the Titans, he did spectacular work. One can only imagine what he would have done with the technology he'd have had access to today.
ALTERNATES: John Dykstra, Phil Tippett

MAKEUP
Rick Baker won the very first non-honorary Oscar for Best Makeup, in 1982 (for An American Werewolf in London), and picked up five more since, including ones for Harry and the Hendersons, Ed Wood, The Nutty Professor, and Men in Black. Makeup for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope? His, baby. Another easy choice, although there are Stan Winston partisans out there.
ALTERNATES: John Chambers, Stan Winston

And you ask, What about actors and actresses? I'm saving them for another column on another day. Till then!